STEVENS POINT – Stanley Halida said it's hard to believe how far farm technology has come since he started running his family farm 34 years ago, and those advances might signal the end of his career — and perhaps the end for other traditional farmers.

Walking around the grounds of Farm Technology Days this week, Halida and other attendees were able to see all manner of ways the agriculture industry is moving far from the days of overalls and long hours working with your hands in the field. Tractors using GPS, unmanned drones that can take photos of your farm field and even robots that can milk your cows were among the technology on hand.

Halida, 61, of Lublin took over his family's small dairy farm, Hilly Creek Haven, 34 years ago from his father, Stanley Halida Sr., and said his own experience of modernization — putting in a pipeline so milk could flow to a large tank instead of having to carry it in buckets — is nothing compared to what he's seeing today. Halida's son Corey Halida, 33, may take over the farm in the next few years, and he expects him to add even more technology.

"It seems like you need a college degree these days to run a farm with everything that's our there, and that's probably why I feel like I'm getting closer to retirement," Halida said.

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Mitchel Fiene demonstrates one of the drones sold by his company, DMZ Aerial, during Farm Technology Days.
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A college degree, or perhaps a pilot's license. In one section of the field dedicated to Farm Tech Days, which ended Thursday, farmers could learn about how a drone from DMZ Aerial could be employed to make their lives easier. DMZ was started in late 2012 by cousins Zach and Mitchell Fiene after they worked for Mitchell's father as crop scouts, which required them to spend long hours walking around farm fields and collecting samples of soil, weeds and water.

So the cousins — Zach is 23, Mitchell is 20 — began modifying remote-controlled helicopters found in hobby stores into a product they call an "aerial intelligence-modified quadcopter." Starting at around $4,500, the quadcopter has a wingspan of about two feet, carries a camera that can take still photos and video and can cover a 200-acre farm in about eight minutes. The flight of the quadcopter can be controlled by a remote control, a smartphone or tablet, or by coordinates uploaded into it through programs such as Google Earth.

Zach Fiene said that since DMZ began to market the drones in early 2013, the company has sold them to farmers in 15 states, and he and Mitchell are on the road most weekends to display their aircraft.

"It's an investment in a product that can make a farmer's job that much easier. They can have a lot of information at their fingertips in minutes," Zach Fiene said.

Allan Herrman, executive director of the non-profit Wisconsin Agriculture Education and Workforce Development Council, said 1 in 10 jobs in Wisconsin are in some way related to agriculture.

Herrman said that to prepare the next generation of farmers and agricultural workers with the skills to take advantage of new technology, his organization is working to put together a plan that will target eighth- and ninth-grade students in Wisconsin. The program would help students interested in agriculture develop post-high school educational plans that will help them in their career path.

"We want to help them determine things like, do they need a two-year or four-year degree for what they want to do, then help them with mentors on campus," Herrman said. "Careers in agriculture are now requiring people who love computers and science, and we've been a little behind the curve on that to this point. We're trying to change that."

Nathan Vine can be reached at 715-345-2252. Find him on Twitter as @SPJNathanVine.